Molson Coors to open new plant in Chilliwack

A new Molson Coors Canada brewery will be built in Chilliwack, B.C., the brewery announced Thursday. After months of discussions with various B.C. municipalities, Molson Coors chose a 14-hectare site located along Kerr Avenue in Chilliwack. The company had been searching for a new site since last November when it announced it had sold the land at the south end of Burrard Street in Vancouver where its brewery has stood for more than 50 years. Molson Coors Canada president and CEO Stewart Glendinning said one of the reasons Chilliwack was picked was its high-quality drinking water. “Chilliwack met all of our requirements to build a new brewery in British Columbia,” Glendinning said in a statement. “Our brewers are delighted with the quality of water in Chilliwack, a key ingredient to producing our great beers and ciders.” The Molson statement said the property is ideally located near the Trans-Canada Highway and within close distance to the U.S. border, which “will be essential to the company’s Western Canadian operations.” Real estate development giant Concord Pacific bought the former Molson Coors brewery site near downtown Vancouver for $185 million, with the aim of transforming one of the last industrial sites in False Creek into a mixed-use high tech hub.